This course focuses on the biotechnology financial life cycle. Effective management of money is key to the success of any enterprise, and even more so in the biotechnology sector due to the long lead times before sustainable and profitable revenue is achieved. Students will become aware of the internal and external challenges business leaders must address to reach each key milestone of a company's development and how these successes must be leveraged to create the value necessary to foster and maintain investor confidence The funding cycle and the processes involved in securing government support (grants, tax incentives, and other commercialisation incentives and resources), private investment (business angel, venture capital, private equity), industry partnerships, stock exchange listing (IPO) through to mergers and acquisitions will be introduced. Students will learn how to interpret and prepare financial statements and to negotiate term sheets and contractual agreements. Through completing the course, students will learn the language of business and finance and gain insight into how biotechnology success is determined by effective risk and financial management. This insight will be reinforced through case studies and assignments that involve the business analysis of successful and failed companies.
